It Has Always Been You
by snowqueen85
Summary: You know what your heart wants but your brain refuses to listen. Even with so many opportunities, there was always an excuse to delay. To tell a person you love them requires a lot of courage, optimism and also the right timing. But for how long can one postpone a confession before someone else enters the picture? SaekixOCxOshitariY
1. Throbbing Hearts

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.

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Students bustled everywhere in the hallway as the lunch bell rang - boys yelling from one end to another, while girls were gossiping about the latest celebrities. But the one that excite them the most was the fact that the school festival was coming up in a few weeks. Everyone was already giving ideas for each of their class and clubs, and each one trying to out best one another.

But while everyone was enjoying their lunch, Aki sat in the student council room, sorting out papers and ideas. "Aki-chan~," the door to the class slid open, revealing a bubbly looking brunette, with a huge smile glued on her face.

The 2nd year vice president narrowed her eyes, not liking the look that the treasurer was giving her, "…..no…whatever you are thinking, no, Mari-sempai!"

The 3rd year pouted as she sat opposite of the younger girl at the table, "but Aki-channnn, the student council has to do something too. Wouldn't a Maid Café be fun?"

Aki crossed her arms over her chest, a strict expression plastered to her face, "No. First of all, there are already 2 classes who want to do a Maid café. Second of all, I do not want to dress up as a maid, going 'Pyon Pyon' while making flying kisses towards the 'Masters' or 'Mistresses' food."

Mari pouted harder but then her eyes brightened up, "Then how about some other themed café?" Aki raised an eyebrow at the suggestion, before she could stop the senior, Mari had already shuffled through all the papers that she had been arranging, checking out the ideas.

"Mari-sempaiiii," Aki protested as her hard work was messed up by Mari.

The clearing of a throat was heard by the opened door, excusing himself to enter. Mari just kept going through the stacks of papers ignoring the presence.

"What is Akasahi-sempai doing?" Aki looked up at the silver-black haired visitor, "Destroying my arrangement. Anyways, what's wrong, Saeki-kun? How can we help you?"

"You can help me by eating something for lunch?" Saeki walked towards her, with strawberry milk and a bun in hand. Aki casually thanked him but she could not deny that her heart slightly raced as their hands touched. She quickly turned away, fearing that her face had turned red, 'Damn it. Ever since he took care of me that one day when I was sick, my heart wouldn't just stay calm.'

"Ne ne, Saeki-kun, what will your class and tennis club be doing?" Mari asked, looking up from a paper she was reading.

"Erm, I think our class was planning a game centre?" He looked over at Aki for confirmation, who nodded, "because half of our classmates will be focusing more on their clubs on that day. There'll be like 5 game booths, so we don't need many students to entertain guests."

"Ah, speaking of the festival, I'm also here to submit the tennis club's idea," Saeki passed Aki a piece of paper in which she looked at it with a laugh, "I wonder if there'll be one day that you guys don't do anything related to tennis."

"It's either this or Hikaru's idea of an Open Mic Stage," Saeki sighed, remembering Kurobane's annoyed look when half of their tennis members were considering it. Mari read the form that Aki handed to her and gave a curious look, "so..how does these 'Tennis games' work?"

"One of them is actually a Dunk Tank but instead of using your hands, you'll have to use a tennis racket to throw the ball. Another game idea was hitting tennis balls into buckets but instead of a tennis racquet, you have to use a durable branch. There's also-."

"Ok, enough. We get it - game booths with tennis things. It's interesting because no one else is doing it. So as long as you guys have the budget for it, we'll approve," Aki informed him before he could drone further on. Saeki smiled gratefully, "well that's good news because I'd hate to think we'd actually have to do the stage thing. Anyways, where's the rest of the student council?"

"The president is meeting up with teachers to get approval for something, and our secretary is collecting the other forms. The others are assigned with some other tasks. Hence, why I'm stuck here arranging the collected forms but Mari-sempai decided to mess it up instead," Aki grumbled when Mari just gave her a cheeky smile.

"How about we do a Costume café?" the sempai thought out aloud as she rearranged the papers she had disturbed. The vice president stared at her tight lip, trying to figure out what costumes Mari had in mind. Aki was about to reject the idea but Mari interrupted her.

"Saeki-kun~ don't you want to see Aki-chan dressed up as a princess, or a vampire, or a playboy bunny?" Mari grinned at the young male who immediately blushed as the thought of his classmate dressed in a revealing bunny suit crossed his mind.

Their senior smirked, bringing out a darker part of herself as she tiptoed to Saeki's ear. One of Aki's eyebrows hitched upwards at seeing the sempai in close contact with her friend. The tennis player tried to back away but Mari had gripped his shirt tightly, "What kind of dirty thoughts are you currently having about our beloved vice-president, Saeki?" Saeki turned redder with the senior's words, "Not..nothing! Yea, Aki, a Costume Café would be an awesome idea. "

Mari let go of the boy and her smirked was quickly replaced by her bubbly smile once more. She turned to Aki who was staring at her with a curious look but before she could say anything, Mari had yet again interrupted her, "So it's set. The Student Council will be doing a Costume themed café. And I will not allow you to reject, Aki-chan because I only have a few months left till I graduate from high school and I want to celebrate my last school festival with something fun and noteworthy."

Aki sighed in defeat and murmured a 'fine.' In an instant, Mari hugged her fellow member, "You're just soooo cute when you're defeated. Alright, I'm going to find Wataru-kun and tell him the good news."

Once she left, Aki propped her elbow up, resting her cheek to her palm. She looked up at Saeki with a concern look, "are you coming down with a fever, Saeki-kun? Your face is quite red." The silver haired guy gulped, turning around on his heels, "I'm fine. It's just quite a hot day today."

His friend frowned at his reasoning since it was mid-November but she waved it away and instead sighed, "A café, huh? I wonder how Mari-sempai plans to get help. There are only 10 members."

Saeki chuckled, turning back around when he felt his face had returned to its normal colour, "We're talking about Akasahi-sempai here. If she is able to bring in huge amounts of money into your club, I'm pretty sure she will be able to bring a whole bunch of people to help out."

The vice president sighed as she stretched her hands over her head, "You have any idea, what should I dress as?" As soon as she said that, an image of Aki in a bunny suit flashed in Saeki's head once more. He could feel his face heating up and before she had a chance to notice it, Saeki quickly excused himself out of the room.

However, he re-entered, stuttering, "Erm..lunch…bread, milk…eat it. Bye." Aki frowned as the door slid close. She stared at the lunch he brought her before smiling sadly as she stabbed a straw into the drink, "Baka, Saeki."

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To be continued...


	2. Denial

Disclaimer: I as always, do not own Prince of Tennis.

ENJOY!

By the way, if any of you have read my Shiraishi/OC/Yagyuu story, yes, I do realise that OC character, Aki, is also a vice president of a student council. Hehe.

Chapter 2: Denial

"Oi, Kazuma-san, come back to Earth, please."

The dark haired girl blinked several times before realising who was beside her, "Pardon me, Takahiro-sempai?"

The spiky haired senior chuckled, walking towards the vice president who stood at the outdoor sinks, "Sensei was having a hard time trying to figure out why one of his best pupils was daydreaming during Kendo practice jus now. I thought you came out here to freshen up?"

"Ah, I did but with the school festival coming up and all, my head has been quite occupied with so many things," Aki replied, bending down to cup some water in her hands. 'That and the fact Saeki has been avoiding me for some reason,' she thought, splashing the collected water to her face.

"You're deep in thoughts again, Kazuma-san," Aki snapped back out of her reverie to find a clean white towel offered to her. As Aki reached out to accept the towel, the sempai spoke up in a nervous tone, "Anou, Kazuma-san…"

Suddenly feeling nervous at the change of tone, Aki ended up taking the towel cautiously, while waiting for the senior's continuation. His face had a tint of red as he stuttered, "Kazuma-san, I like you."

'Well, that's pretty blunt,' Aki thought but cursed herself for being caught in the situation. "Will you go out with me?" Takahiro was now blushing furiously and had bowed to her to hide his face.

The vice president stood stiff, not knowing how to reply and to make matters worse, she felt that there was an audience. She turned to her right to see Saeki was standing at the opposite sink and was staring at her with an unreadable expression.

"Saeki-kun…when did you get here?"

The tennis player was about to reply when the kendo sempai pulled back Aki's attention, "Kazuma-san, since we were disturbed, I'll wait for your answer tomorrow. You should clear your head. I'll tell sensei you're not feeling."

"..err..ah..sure…," was the only thing the kouhai was able to answer. Takahiro gave her a warm smile but as he turned to leave, he looked at Saeki with a face filled with resentment. Saeki felt taken back but he did not know how to respond, instead he just watched the senior walk away.

Saeki felt splashes of water droplets hitting his face, pulling him out of the puzzlement. He quickly brought his attention back to the girl in front of him, who was waiting for him to answer her previous question.

"oh…I got here when he was about to confess. Apparently both of you were too engrossed in the situation that neither realised my presence," Saeki explained with a light laughter, "I felt like I was watching a shoujo anime."

Aki stared at him, ignoring his teasing. Saeki, realising this, became very uncomfortable. He quickly waved a hand in front of his classmate's face, pulling her back into reality, "Are you ok?"

Aki nodded, as she started to walk away, "Are you free after class tomorrow?"

Saeki raised an eyebrow, "I have tennis practice again. Don't you have a date with Takahiro-sempai?"

The girl bit her lower lip, "I'm…I'm still thinking about it. Anyways, I wanted your help to get a few things for the school festival but since you're busy, I might take up sempai's offer instead."

"Oh…," was the only thing Saeki muttered. Aki had looked back at him, a small smile on her face. She stood there for what seemed like a minute, waiting for something else to happen but they just continued to lock eyes.

Finally giving up, Aki grumbled, "Later, Saeki-kun." She walked away, sighing inwardly, 'Baka, Saeki!'

The second year guy heaved a heavy sigh as he crouched down, hands on the edge of the sink, "I lied to her again. I should have at least asked to do it on a different day."

"Sae…should we be worried that you're talking to yourself again?"

Hearing the familiar voice of Kisarazu Ryo had startled him causing Saeki to hit his head on the edge of the sink, much to the amusement of his tennis members. He cursed loudly, rubbing the sore spot before facing his teammates, "I'm fine."

"Keep telling yourself that. We've been watching from the corner since just now," Kurobane snickered, washing his hands at a free sink. "If you like her, you should go for it. We only have one year and a few months left to get ourselves a girlfriend. Though I don't think David can get one if he keeps telling his jokes," Ryo encourage, and in cue, their red haired teammate opened their mouth to tell a joke but before he could, his partner kicked him.

"Being friends is good enough. We're both going to be busy, especially once she becomes the president of the student council and with me being the tennis captain next year," Saeki tried but the others did not buy it.

"Aoi-kun will finally be joining us. So we get back our old regulars. No worries. We'll play like old times. And with a girl cheering for us, we might even do better," Itsuki pointed out the zero faults in having a girlfriend.

"Anyways, you shouldn't worry. There were rumours saying she's quitting the student council," Kurobane placed an arm around his friend's shoulder and gave him a mischievous look, "may be she's quitting for you." "Where did you get your information from, Bane-kun? I heard she's quitting Kendo instead," Ryo, disagreed with his fellow classmate and member. Saeki had enough, he backed away from his friends and said, "it doesn't matter if she quits a club or not. Like I said, I'm fine with us being just friends. If we became anything more, we might just end up ruining the relationship we currently have. I'm going back to practice, so please stop talking about Aki."

"may be one of us should teach him a lesson and try to steal Aki away from him," David/Hikaru suggested jokingly but his eyes widened as his teammates seemed to be contemplating, "Guys, I was just kidding."

"But you got a point there, David. Saeki doesn't realise it but his play has been quite…unprofessional for the past week. It might be because of Aki," Kurobane nodded, arms crossed as he tried to figure out a plan.

Ryo raised an eyebrow, "hold on. We don't even know what the real cause is. So don't go jumping to conclusions!"

Kurobane shrugged before heading back to the courts, "it won't hurt to try something. Saeki's being quite pathetic."

"Oi! I don't even think we're Aki-san's type," Ryo yelled after the members who had left him behind. He grumbled, stomping his way to the practice, whilst uttering about nonsensical friends.

To Be Continued


End file.
